CREATION BITS No 9.
Scriptural Arguments Against Compromise Positions
| Author: Curt Sewell Subject: Creation Overviews Date: 11/2/1999 CREATION BITS INDEX |
Many Christians want to believe the Bible, but they’re almost “brainwashed” in the media, the National Geographic, TV nature programs, and from their colleagues. This brainwashing comes from phrases like “when these magnificent creatures evolved, millions of years ago …” Many are also misled by the theologians who follow the “intellectual path” of the majority of non-Christian scholars, and even many seminary leaders, who say that “Well, science has proved …” Many don’t realize that acceptance of secular scientists, rather than the clear statements in Scripture, is actually a form of idolatry — rejecting God’s clear Word.
Those scientists who advocate billions of years of evolutionary development are almost all either atheists or agnostics. Are these the people who should guide our religious doctrines?
Compromises About Origins of Earth, Animals, and People
The Day/Age Theory says that creation took place in six long eras, not ordinary 24-hour days. But the Bible language won’t allow this as the primary meaning of the word “day.” Also, how could plants (third day) live for millions of years without the sun (fourth day), or birds or insects (fifth day)?
Theistic Evolutionists believe that God was a mastermind who somehow used evolution to accomplish His creation. But the Biblical sequence is completely wrong for that, and also scientists scoff at this because random processes are fundamental to evolution — their theories wouldn’t work with any sort of intelligent intervention. They rely on purely materialistic processes. Evolution is a cruel process of “survival of the fittest,” but God is kind and loving. Accusing Him of evolutionist tactics is a slander.
Progressive Creationists say that God used physical evolution for most of the creation, but at a number of discrete points He interjected a supernatural creative act. For example, they allow primate-to hominid evolution, but say that then God chose a hominid, created a soul, and named him Adam.
Compromise About the World-Wide Flood of Noah
All of these schemes deny the world-wide flood of Noah, and say that it was just a local flood. But the Bible is very specific, that floodwaters covered the entire earth, and that all air-breathing animals and humans were killed, except for those in Noah’s Ark. They all say the earth is billions of years old, but the Bible says it’s only thousands of years. They all say that animal deaths occurred by the billions long before Adam’s sin, but the Bible teaches that death is the result of man’s sin. Those who deny the world-wide nature of the Flood are rejecting, not just a few chapters in Genesis, but many others. Jesus obviously believed the universal Flood, as did the writers of the New Testament. Are we wiser than they?
Creation Bits #22 describes the Flood in much more detail than we have space for here. Fossils and rock formations fit the Flood account better than they fit a long slow development. And why would God tell Noah to spend a century building an Ark if the Flood was simply local? Why would God break His covenant in Gen. 9:11 if it were just local — we’ve had many damaging local floods since then.
The Structure Below
The left-most columns below contain Bible verses, grouped to pertain to some point of doctrine. To their right is an explanation of their meaning, and how they show that the Bible is really telling about God’s miraculous creation, and a world-wide Flood.
| Genesis 1:12,13 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Exodus 31:17,18 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, … And he gave unto Moses, … two tablets of testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. |
Six Ordinary Days
Each use of “day” in the creation account has a number, and also refers to “evening and morning.” Hebrew scholars agree that this restricts the meaning to “ordinary 24-hour day,” not extremely long ages. This is part of the Ten Commandments, which God wrote with his own fingers. The ordinary sabbath and the seventh day of creation use the same word “day.” |
| Mechanism of the Creation Process
Psalm 33:6,7 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layethup the depth in storehouses. Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was created at God’s command, so that what we now see was made out of what cannot be seen. Humans Were God’s Final Creation Gen.1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. … Mark 10:6-9 [Jesus said], But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: The First Marriage Mark 10:6-9 [Jesus said], But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. |
Mechanism of the Creation Process
We can’t expect to understand the physical details of creation — they were supernatural. Don’t ask how God did his creating — He spoke it into existence — He didn’t use sequential physical step-by-step processes, as a scientist might imagine. He completed the Creation, and then set in motion the “Laws of Nature.”
Humans Were God’s Final Creation Humankind was God’s crowning creative act. Jesus believed in God’s creation, and that God created man and woman at that time. If Jesus believed this, we should also, otherwise we imply that Jesus was ignorant, and believed in folk-tales.
The First Marriage Jesus reaffirmed that man and woman were created at the beginning. Their marriage took place shortly afterward. He emphasized that marriage should be done carefully, “until death separates the two.” It’s a serious commitment to each other, and to God. Nowhere in the Bible is there a suggestion that marriage could imvolve two people of the same sex. Homosexual acts are forbidden by God, the same as adultery and other sexual sins. However, we need to hate the sin, but love the sinner. Those who are addicted to homosexuality need Christ’s help, not our hatred. |
| Men and Beasts Were Originally Vegetarians
Gen.1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. Gen.1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Meat Diet Permitted After the Flood Gen.9:3,4 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Adam’s Sin was “inherited” Before Adam’s Sin, Romans 5:12-21 Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned … because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, … as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I-Corinthians 15:21-22 For as by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Romans 8:22 For we know that even the things of nature, like animals and plants, suffer in sickness and death as they await this great event [God’s eventual redemption]. Genesis 3:21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them. |
Men and Beasts Were Originally Vegetarians
All the land creatures were originally vegetarians, not meat-eaters. There were no predators at first. At the end of the six-day period, Earth was a paradise — no death or violence before Adam’s first sin, which brought punishment on the earth and all its creatures.
Meat Diet Permitted After the Flood God said they were free to eat any sort of plant or animal, since the Flood had made the earth barren for those first years. This permission was later changed in the dietary laws given to Moses. Some animals were declared to be clean (fit to eat) while some were unclean (forbidden as food). (see Leviticus, chapter 11) Adam’s Sin was “inherited” Before Adam’s Sin, When Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command, and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their spiritual death occurred immediately, and their ultimate physical death was ensured. But God had already planned for Jesus to provide eternal life. There was no animal or human death before Adam’s sin — all those fossils in the ground must have died afterward, most of them as the result of the Flood. The first actual physical death (animal sacrifice) took place shortly after Adam’s sin, when God killed animals (probably lambs) to get skins with which to make clothes for them. Hebrews 9:22 says that there must be shedding of blood to get remission of sins. |
| Reality of the World-Wide Flood
Gen.7:19-23 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. Gen.9:11-13 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. II-Peter 3:3-6 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: Matt.24:37-39 [Jesus said], But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. The Judgment Hebrews 9:27,28 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. |
Reality of the World-Wide Flood
Genesis 6:9 – 8:19 describe the Great Flood. There’s no doubt that this says it was world-wide, covering even the highest mountains (almost certainly they were lower than they are now). It lasted about a year, and all air-breathing creatures died, except for those on the Ark with Noah. If the Flood were just local, why did God have Noah go to all the trouble of building the Ark? Why not just tell him to move out of the Flood area? After the Flood, Noah worshipped God, and God made a covenant with him. God pledged to never again send such a flood on the earth, to destroy the entire earth and all its life. He gave the rainbow as a token of this covenant. If the Flood were just local, then God must have broken His covenant many times, because we’ve had many devastating local floods since that time. A prophecy that scoffers will say that things haven’t changed since the beginning (is this thetheory of uniformitarianism?). They will be willingly ignorant (choose not to believe) that the earth was destroyed by a Flood, and all life died (except those on the Ark). This should be a warning for compromisers who reject the reality of the Creation and the Flood. Jesus believed in the reality of the Flood of Noah, and compared it to His future return to Earth. If Jesus believed it, shouldn’t we believe also? Are we smarter than Jesus? If we don’t believe that Flood, how can we believe He will return?
The Judgment God’s creation is his legal claim that he made us, owns us, that he has a right to expect us to obey his laws, and will one day judge us. Jesus willingly came to Earth, suffered, died, and shed His blood as payment for our sins. He gives salvation to all who will accept Him. Praise God! |